The Significance of the Three Scaffold Scenes in the Scarlet Letter

The scaffold played an important part in identifying the characters of the Scarlet Letter throughout the novel. At each scene, the reader comes to understand something of the main characters and glimpses how that sin represented by the scarlet “A” has affected them.

Hester Prynne, clutching both the living and the imposed () of her sin to her breast, is seen atop the scaffold, sternly looked on by all, but without her lover. She stood there in quiet defiance, refusing to reveal to the multitude before her who the father of her child was, and in this the reader sees a picture of a woman scorned and fearing for the life of herself and her child, but bearing the scrutiny of all with a calm defiance. Nearby, stood Arthur Dimmesdale, asking his secret lover to reveal the name of the father of that child. He did not, at that time, have the strength or the will to do so himself, and was begging Hester to reveal him for what he was. Among the crowd, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s wronged husband, adds his voice to the multitude in demanding that Hester reveal her secret. He seems an old, disappointed man, finding that the one he had waited three years to join had, during that time, left him for another. Thereafter, he would pledge to avenge himself of the man that had partnered in wronging him.

Late one night, Dimmesdale could have been seen on the scaffold, looking for some peace from the guilt tormenting his mind. His penitence, however, lacked an audience. Here, the reader sees a nearly mad man, too weak to reveal himself for what he really was, but too pious to otherwise ignore it. Hester and Pearl discover him there and join him, acknowledging the bond between the three before none other than themselves. Hester comes to realize the poor state in which Dimmesdale has borne his guilt, and resolves to lend him her strength, which has served to uphold her throughout the years of her public shame. Pearl questions the minister as to whether he would stand...

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The first scene is on the platform for the crowd to witness Hester’s shame. The Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale is in great grief but he is not standing by her side, he is too much of a coward to come forward so gives a speech to convince Hester to name her partner in sin hoping she would say that he is the baby’s father “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow sinner and fellow sufferer!” (47). Hester does not tell who the father is, leaving Dimmsdale with his hand on his heart and keeping the truth hidden.
The second time at the scaffold was a turning point for Dimmsdale. Dimmsdale is standing...

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In the novel The ScarletLetter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the pillory is established in the opening scene as a place of religious and social justice, judgment, confession and humiliation. However, the pillory only shows the condemnation of those sinners who are caught, while it hides the majority of many sinners who manage to evade punishment but more importantly, manage to evade public ridicule. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the spiritual leader of the Puritan community, has the duty to denounce those placed on this spot of disgrace. However, when a woman named Hester Prynne is placed on the scaffold for adultery, Dimmesdale does not publically confess his involvement in her sin. Hawthorne brings the reader again two more times to this place of humiliation, during which Dimmesdale grapples with the guilt “of penitence [of which] there has been none” (175). Dimmesdale’s struggle between penance and penitence, as shown in the threescaffoldscenes, shapes into a longing to publically confess rather than suffer private punishment. In these scenes, Dimmesdale comes to realize that anyone can be a sinner and that a confession can counter the “grim rigidity” of the Puritanical community that disregards the fact that “we are all sinners alike” (44, 237). Instead of ignoring this...

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The first scaffoldscene is when Hester Prynne is accused of committing adultery and Dimmesdale, her lover, lets her stand alone for the crime they both committed. Dimmesdale is present throughout the whole scene but he is very hesitant to admit that he is the secret lover, although Mr. Wilson is pestering him to find out who it is. He doesn’t admit because he is afraid if he does confess it will ruin his reputation as a person and as a minister. “The young pastor’s voice was tremendously sweet, rich, deep, and broken. The feeling that it so evidently manifested, rather than the direct purport of the words, caused it to vibrate within all hearts and brought listeners into one accord of sympathy” (65). From this, we learn that Dimmesdale didn’t want to confront Hester but he felt guilty and broken inside for not confessing his sins to the public. Dimmesdale is even so bold as to ask...

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